


Let It Happen

by malloryeatsthekeys



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, platonic Annie/Abed/Troy, swearing but like that’s it otherwise it’s safe for network television
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25571542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malloryeatsthekeys/pseuds/malloryeatsthekeys
Summary: At some point, Abed Nadir realizes he will fall in love with Annie Edison.Annie Edison realizes she’s falling in love with Abed Nadir in waves.A/A ft. Apt 303, Cougar Town, and so much fluffy pining
Relationships: Annie Edison & Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Annie Edison/Abed Nadir
Comments: 19
Kudos: 119





	1. Let It Happen

At some point, Abed Nadir realizes he will fall in love with Annie Edison. 

He hasn’t, yet, but he’s pretty sure he will one day. And he doesn’t exactly know what to do with that information. 

He’d assumed she was Troy’s happily-ever-after at first. Later, Jeff’s. No matter who, he always assumed that one day, one of them would realize what they were missing, realize their mistakes, realize she was their everything. Make a mad dash in the rain or through an airport or if they were lucky and it was during paintball, a heroic run through war-torn campus, paint dripping from the walls but never hitting their clothing until Annie’s there and she _knows_ and she feels the same and their lips touch— 

Maybe he should have realized earlier where this was going. 

(He notes, somewhere in the back of his mind, that _Star Wars_ always comes in trilogies and that sounds like a pretty good sequel.)

When she makes eye contact with him across the study room table, he’s suddenly grateful he’s made keen observation such a large part of his character. She smiles, the small smile that’s his second favorite, the one that’s genuine and gentle and joyful but meant for public consumption. There’s a difference between Annie-at-home and Annie-in-public, and her smiles are one of them. 

He looks away, returning his attention to the Jeff-Britta spat brewing. Troy’s indignant and overwhelmed, Shirley is tut-tutting at something Jeff’s just said, Britta’s using Shirley’s disdain as ammunition, and Pierce, despite every attempt Abed has made to point out it doesn’t actually have voice-to-text turned on, is yelling into his phone, trying to get it to Google whatever caused the kerfuffle in the first place. And Annie is looking down at her phone, uncharacteristically unfocused, but her sweater is soft and her eyelashes have never seemed longer or more Disney-esque and his realization floods back over him. Yes, he will definitely fall in love with Annie Edison one day. 

His phone buzzes in his pocket and he quickly pulls it out, latching onto any distraction only to find Annie’s name on his home screen. 

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** can we do cougar town tonight? I’ll pick up a bottle of wine if you two make the popcorn and noodles 

Abed sees Troy fist pump under the table. _Cougar Town_ nights are Troy’s favorite, because Annie lets them get wine-drunk and silly and Annie after three glasses of merlot is much more likely to turn the entire apartment into a fort or set up Penny Can tournaments with all sorts of obstacles or start a game of floor-is-lava, and Troy _thrives_ in that chaos. But really, Troy’s their Jules, and he just loves it when they’re all together. Annie asking for _Cougar Town_ almost guarantees an entire night just the three of them. 

**Troy to casa trobedison:** yessssss!!!! can u get the big bottle this time we ran out last time?? and gummy bears can you get gummy bears 

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** last time I got you gummy bears during cougar town you put them in your wine and microwaved it to make nono soup and I had to do the dishes 

**Troy to casa trobedison:** but i wont this time!! 

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** fine, but if you make a mess, I’m not cleaning it up!

**Troy to casa trobedison:** deal!!!!!

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** deal. and I’ll get the big bottle, but you’re making the popcorn on the stove instead of the microwave 

Abed glances up to see her face as he reads that, tuning out Jeff and Britta’s rising voices. She catches his eyes again, and he wonders why this keeps happening today. He looks back down only when his phone buzzes. 

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** Abed, is that cool with you?

He can almost feel her eyes burning into him, so he nods once as he types.

**to casa trobedison:** Cool with me. But we’re out of popcorn. 

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** ah, shit. I’ll get that too then

**to casa trobedison:** Nah, we’ll go to the grocery store. You go to the liquor store. We’ll take care of the popcorn and gummy bears. 

This time, when he looks up, she’s looking down at her phone, not at him, but she’s smiling his favorite smile. The one that he’s only ever seen her give to him. 

A grin tugs at the corners of his mouth until he allows himself a small half-smile. 

He may know what’s coming, but no one else does. And until he understands it, until he’s prepared for it, until he has time to consider what this means, until he can run the simulations, he wants to keep it that way. And until then, he’s content to make her happy, let it happen, and try to see that smile as often as he can.

**Annie Edison to casa trobedison:** thanks, Abed 💕


	2. Hers Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie Edison realizes she’s falling in love with Abed Nadir in waves.

Annie Edison realizes she’s falling in love with Abed Nadir in waves.

Which, for a girl like Annie, is highly unusual. She’s used to falling fast and hard, head over heels before she realizes what’s happening. Love to her is skipped heartbeats and flushed cheeks and longing looks and catching your breath when he comes a little too close. It’s almosts, it’s what-ifs, it’s tension. And it always hits her like a ton of bricks.

So when she finds herself smiling fondly at Abed one day in their cozy little home, thinking to herself just how much she loves the man in front of her, she almost misses it. But he turns around right at the moment and briefly meets her eyes before returning to the noodles on the stove and in that moment she grasps the fleeting thought before it’s gone— she really does love Abed. After all, she’d be living above a sex shop if it weren’t for him, studying hospital management, never having stepped foot in the Dreamatorium. She shudders internally at the idea of a Troy-and-Abed-less Annie, too stuck up and tightly wound to have much fun, too ashamed of her own immaturity to let herself enjoy it. She files her gratitude and affections towards the latter away for another day.

And when she hugs him goodnight at the end of a _long_ day, too tired to even wait for Troy to come home, she takes note of the happy glow that settles over her as she tucks herself into bed. Bad moods can be hard for her to shake. She fixates, worries into the night, too wary of a relapse to let herself take anything stronger than a Benadryl. She tosses and turns, wearing out the binding on her favorite novels. Sometimes she’ll reorganize her dresser or desk or closet, tiptoeing around her room and being painstakingly careful to open drawers and doors slowly so that no wood will creak and her beloved roommates don’t wake up. Yet her bad mood dissipates quickly, and her dreams that night are warm, filled with that same happy glow.

She makes a lot of notes in the coming weeks. How cool it is to see him switch into character so easily, taking on an entirely different body language. How, despite his perceived difficulty connecting with people, he manages to work with large crews on huge sets, coordinating everything with his team. How that team has so many of the same members film to film— they must like working with him. How he knows how to pull the right strings to push his friends into their next steps, usually so gently no one notices his work behind the dazzling Winger smile. How neat he is, keeping everything he owns perfectly in line and in their proper places. How intricate his organization is, systems she thought were arbitrary and slowly learns are purposeful and logical (perhaps not logical by the traditional definition, but Annie can appreciate a DVD shelf sorted by genre, director, and quality in that order, and she learns she usually agrees with his determinations of quality, anyways). How despite being able to drop his mannerisms and adopt someone else’s in an instant, he chooses to be himself. He’s said as much before, the week she first met his Don Draper, but she realizes she appreciates it more now. She’s never been able to shake her persona, even as the shiny, pretty new version of Little Annie Adderall that people like much more than the frizzy-haired, brace-faced Jewish nerd pushing herself to be the best at all times, at any cost. She knows that drive is still there, the one that drove her up the wall and through a glass door, but her facade is toned down now, more restrained than it was in high school. Sometimes she lets herself slip up, lets the parts of Annie that the Adderall pushed down shine through. But Abed? Abed lets himself shine without putting up the shields she does. He _could_ be someone else, but he lets the world see him for who he is instead. 

She admires that. Envies it a little, but mostly admires it. Then she stores her admiration away with the rest of her growing collection, painting a picture she’s not quite ready to see.

The final straw comes when she catches herself gazing at one of the photos of them she has in her locker, soft smile appearing without a thought. She barely notices as she traces the edge of his photographed face with her thumb, doesn’t even clock the somewhat distinct footsteps of the flesh and blood version behind her. 

“Hey.” 

She snaps out of it and whirls around, clutching her textbook to her chest and instinctively hiding the photograph behind her back. 

“Hey, Abed! Good to see you,” she says, too cheery and too formal at the same time. He fixes her with a confused look and she sighs, letting the tension in her body melt away and putting her book back in her locker where it belongs. “Sorry. You just surprised me.” She hopes that’s explanation enough for him. He nods in his unique way that seems curt if you don’t know him but is a good sign if you do and she’s never been happier to see it. 

“Gotcha. What were you looking at?” 

_Fuck._ Of course he noticed. Annie glances over her shoulder at the picture of them, and realizes for the first time just how many they are. She hopes her half-turn hid enough of her flustered blush to evade detection and looks back to him. 

“Oh, just thinking I need some new pictures to add to my locker. These ones are all so old,” She gives him her best happy-Annie smile. “Anyways, what’s up?” 

“Do you want to go see a movie? I checked with the foreman on the construction site across the street and they won’t be done for another three hours.” 

She nods. “Too loud?” 

“Yep,” he confirms. 

“Sure, then. Is Troy coming?” 

“No, he has dance class on Thursdays.” 

“It’s Wednesday.” 

“He’s practicing for tomorrow. They have auditions for the next recital.” 

“So, just us then?” God, she did not mean to sound that eager. 

“If that’s alright with you,” he responds. 

“Definitely! What movie?” 

He shrugs. “There’s nothing that good right now. You can pick.” 

She feels her cheeks heat up and her heart flutter just a little and thinks maybe her internal file cabinet of “ways Abed makes her feel” is finally full. “Sounds good! Want to go now?” 

He glances at his watch. “I need to put my books away.”

”Abed!” she chastises, “Don’t you have homework?” 

“Annie, I’m a film student at a community college. Most of my homework can be done with Windows Movie Maker.”

She knows her cheeks are pink once more and grimaces internally at both her error and her reaction.

“Right. Well, I’ll meet you out front then?” She can hear the hope and anticipation tinging her voice and prays he can’t tell. 

“Sounds good.” He pauses for a moment, and she wants to pack layers of foundation onto her cheeks to be sure no one can ever see her blush like this again. She offers him a soft smile that’s all her with (almost) no performance.

”See you in a bit, then!” 

If she sees his face soften and his gaze drop to her cheeks, then her lips, then— well, she can find a new place to put that thought. And if she notices him take a small step closer, notices her face warm even more, notices a curious look on his face... well, he steps back soon enough and then he’s heading towards his locker and she’s closing hers and Googling what movies are playing in theaters today and letting herself smile unabashedly wide as she does. 

She knows, now, what her collection of internal memos and little moments mean. Those feelings are hers, and hers alone, and right now, knowing is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a one-shot and now it is decidedly not
> 
> I hope all you lovely people enjoy 💝


End file.
